PCPD held public seminar on “Creative Thinking and Blog Writing Skills”

1.    The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (“PCPD”) today (29 August) held a public seminar on “Creative Thinking and Blog Writing Skills” to deliver the message on the importance of protecting and respecting privacy to the youth.

2.    The Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Mr. Roderick B. Woo said, “Young people nowadays like to communicate via the Internet.  Although this is fast and convenient, personal privacy may be affected because unlimited number of messages can be sent by just a touch of the ‘SEND’ button.  To promote the protection of personal data and respect for others’ privacy to the youth, the PCPD has organized a variety of activities for young people in this Privacy Awareness Week, and this public seminar is one of them.  Young people should be careful when they provide their personal data on the Internet, and before disclosing others’ data, they should respect their decisions.”

3.    Being held at the Lecture Theatre of Hong Kong Central Library, the seminar attracted an audience of over 200 people.  Renowned DJ Mr. Francis Mak and writer Mr. Ong Yi Hing were invited to share their views on creative writing and privacy.  Mr. Mak reminded young people that they should respect others’ privacy and avoid disclosing sensitive personal data during online communication.  Mr. Ong gave practical tips for writing blogs and shared his views on privacy protection with the audience.

4.    Moreover, in order to understand young people’s views on privacy and to ignite their analytical and debating skills, a debate on “There is no privacy protection in the cyber world” was organized between the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (affirmative side) and the Hong Kong Girl Guides Association (negative side) after the seminar.  Eloquent and brilliant speakers of both teams showed excellent performance in this exciting event.  Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups finally won the debate by a few points.  3 representatives of Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups said after the debate that the topic was very interesting and their awareness of protection of online personal data privacy had been raised when they gathered information for the debate.